Online Residential Market Analysis and Highest & Best Use

Course overview

This program provides a fresh look at the relationship between market analysis and highest and best use. In this program, you will discover where to find the information you need to make a highest and best use decision and how to interpret the information you find. You will learn how to read and map a market area for a subject property and discover the essential links between market analysis, highest and best use analysis, and the three approaches to value (cost, sales comparison, and income capitalization). You will also gain practical experience by solving highest and best use problems similar to problems you might encounter in the real world. Theory is translated into practice by leading you through extensive and varied activities encouraging you to become actively involved in applying concepts to real-world situations. You probably got a glimpse of both market analysis and highest and best use analysis in the two prerequisite programs: Basic Appraisal Principles and Basic Appraisal Procedures. This program delves more deeply into the relationship between these two analytical processes. We will explore how the two major parts of the property valuation process are affected by highest and best use analysis. The first part establishes the basis for value--highest and best use. The second part develops a value opinion by applying the three approaches to valuation. An accurate opinion of a property's value can be developed only through effective market analysis, which considers the market factors that establish the basis for its value. Market analysis is a screening process for highest and best use in connection with land as though vacant and property as improved. Information, or data, about the market is used to establish the ideal and typical improvements. A clear understanding of highest and best use is critical to performing an accurate market analysis. As such, this program addresses three relevant questions about market information: - What information is needed to test for the highest and best use? - Where is it found? - How is it used?